In recent years, the range of devices capable of wireless communication has greatly increased to encompass a huge number of different device types with a variety of different functions and purposes. For example, devices that previously had no abilities for communication have now been equipped with such functionality for remote and/or short range wireless communication, which is used e.g. for providing or retrieving information. Medical devices are an example of such devices, which have sensors with ability to measure various physical parameters of a user, e.g. temperature, blood pressure and heartbeat, to be reported to a central node for medical surveillance. Other examples include cameras capable of communicating with other devices or servers for exchanging pictures, e.g. for uploading captured pictures to a central storage node, and E-books, also referred to as tablets, enabling users to access books and other publications over the Internet, e.g. by subscription.
Thus, there is a growing need for devices, or “gadgets”, which can be connected to the Internet for downloading or uploading information and media, e.g. in fields such as health, transportation, finance, retail, and so forth. So-called “M2M” (Machine-to-Machine) devices have also become increasingly common on the market for automatic communication between nodes without user interaction. In the following description, the term “device” is used for short to represent any equipment capable of wireless communication, at least short range communication.
Further, communication devices can typically be adapted to specific users or owners wanting their own personal settings and functions, to provide personalized usage of the device. In this description, the term “personalized” represents any adaptation of a device to a specific user or owner, e.g. in terms of settings, functions and availability of stored data, as well as for uploading information and media to a central server based on user credentials. For example, a camera can be adapted to a particular user by various settings and also by making certain pictures captured or otherwise acquired by the camera available to that user only and no-one else. The camera may also accordingly upload captured pictures to a specific storage associated with the current user. In further examples, a media player may have personal play lists, a medical device may have personal medical data stored, a vehicle unit may have personal settings of certain car functions, and so forth.
It is also desirable sometimes to share a personalized device with another user, and to change the personalization accordingly to become adapted to the other user instead. This can be accomplished e.g. by means of a login procedure when the user inputs his user identity and a password to make the device adapt its settings and functions to the logged-in user. For example, a camera, a game console or a media player may be shared by plural friends or family members when it is desirable for each user to use the device in a personally adapted condition.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example with a camera 100 which may be capable of communicating with a network 102, e.g. the Internet. A first user “1” logs in to the camera in a first shown action 1:1, which results in some adaptation locally of the camera, e.g. according to a predefined user profile or the like. In some cases, the camera 100 may also verify the user with the network 102, if required, in an action 1:2 and may further retrieve certain user-specific information from the network, in a further action 1:3, as a basis for personalization of the camera.
A dashed arrow illustrates that the camera 100 is handed over to another user “2” who logs in to the camera instead of user 1 in a similar manner, in a next action 1:4. Accordingly, the camera 100 is personalized and adapted for the new user, possibly after another verification in action 1:5 and retrieving of user-specific information from the network in a further action 1:6.
However, there are some drawbacks associated with this known procedure and others. Firstly, the users are required to log in to the camera 100 in order to bring about the proper personalization, which is cumbersome and may not even be possible in some devices. Secondly, the security may be deemed insufficient in this procedure, e.g. when it is possible for an intruder to break a login barrier, if used, and when it is not possible to perform verification and authentication of the current user with the network, such as devices not having functionality therefor and not being registered in the network.